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Case Collection

The Picker Center Case Collection offers executive education and other SIPA students access to an exclusive collection of audiovisual case studies on issues of public sector innovation from around the world.

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Through the generous support of the Lemann Foundation, Brava Foundation, and other funders, the Picker Center Digital Education Group produces audiovisual case studies on public sector innovation, filmed on location around the world.

All cases combine traditional written case studies, along with video introductions and additional interviews. Filmed on location in the USA, Brazil, India, Congo, Ghana and other locations, these cases bring to life pressing issues in public management, including the use of digital technology in government, sustainability, city management and data driven management techniques.

Film and case research teams combine the talents and expertize of award-winning PBS filmmakers and SIPA students. In 2018, with the generous support of the Provost’s office for Online Learning the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), SIPA initiated a Capstone/Case Study project, with student teams producing original filmed cases in Costa Rica and Peru.

All cases are available for SIPA and Picker Center Executive education students on our exclusive online case platform, and include teaching notes, original documents and other materials. Full access to the case collection is available to SIPA students with UNIs at Case Collection on Canvas. Outside SIPA partners, please request access to the full collection though Case Inquiries.Please click on links below for short preview videos for some of the cases in our collection:

SUSTAINABILITY CASES

Partnerships for Parks

This case examines the history of the world’s most famous and success privately run parks – New York’s Central Park and the High Line. With exclusives interviews with government officials and green space activists, it explores the controversies and policy issues surrounding the use of private funds to fund public spaces.

Saved by the Soil? Conservation Agriculture in Ghana

Filmed on location in Ghana and USA, this report examines the debate on "conservation agriculture" and global warming. Can techniques such as "no-till farming" work in a developing country such as Ghana? Can they help sequester carbon from the atmosphere and help solve global warming?

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CASES

AID or Investment? Development and Conflict Resolution in Central Africa

The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda in central Africa are two countries that have been torn apart by civil war and conflict. Twenty-two years after the genocide that killed over 800,000, Rwanda has emerged with a vibrant economy, while in neighboring DRC's civil war continues to undermine development. Is aid the solution, or part of the problem?

Revitalizing Afghanistan

Rural Afghanistan is for many a “perfect storm” where warfare and poverty combine to undermine development. This case asks whether a very different approach to aid, built on local communitiy empowerment, can pave the way for success.

Citi services across Brazil

New case focused on government innovation on the local city level. Our case will look at how outside private sector consultants and provide a "Boot camp" for local government officials of medium to small size cities, allowing them to apply "best practices" in a variety of areas to improve local services.

TECHNOLOGY IN GOVERNMENT CASES

21st Century Digital India

Filmed on location in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, this case explores India’s massive campaign to create a biometric database of its 1.2 billion citizens, and bring banking and other services to India’s rural masses.

Big Data for Public Safety

Case that examines the use of "Big Data" and technology in the delivery of city services in NY. Includes interviews with Senior officials, including NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton and others.

Telemedicine & eDoctors

Web-based technologies offer promising opportunities to improve health services and lower costs. While here in the US, legal and bureaucratic barriers hold back the spread of telemedicine, in India an exciting experiment aims to take online medicine to the masses.

Impact Investing Case Study Series

doing Well by Doing Good

In collaboration with Worldview Global Impact (WGI), a New York-based NGO that promotes sustainability initiatives, the Picker Center is producing a new series of case studies that will examine this important global strategy from a variety of perspectives.

The first case, Doing Well by Doing Good: An Introduction to Impact Investing, will be available in Fall 2019.